Tradies In Business

Amii Jones has run Touchwood Tree Services, a tree removal business, with her husband for 15 years, and in this episode she gets honest about what that milestone actually looked like behind the scenes. She talks about the guilt of switching off, the loneliness of working from home, and how the hard stuff never disappears, it just looks different, from surviving the early days to managing staff and admitting when you're the bot...

Nicole flips the script and lets Angus take the coach role as they talk through why marketing in accounting is so tough. Angus talks about the licensing rules and restrictions that shape how accountants can talk about money, the split between clients who show up just to stay compliant versus those who want a real growth partnership, and how nearly all of his business has come from referrals and relationships built over time rather ...

Steven Daniels spent years grinding through the construction industry before burnout left him physically unable to get out of bed. That moment pushed him to study positive psychology and coaching, and he's now the founder of Align 56 Coaching, running retreats and workshops for construction business owners and their teams. Steven and Nic talk about why so many tradies wait until they hit the wall before making real change, the stig...

Lauren never set out to run a caravan hire business, she started out as a gymnastics coach before life threw her a curveball: her husband Greg's arm injury, exhausting hours away from her kids, and eventually a leap of faith into a lap around Australia in a caravan. What began as a way to fund the rego turned into Outback 2 Sea, a business built on giving other mums the same break, restoration, and permission to just let their kids...

Being flat out busy doesn't always mean you're winning, and most business owners avoid looking at the numbers that would prove it. Nic chats with Angus Gasbarri from Earnt Advisory about auditing where your time actually goes, why charge-out rates and margins are the two figures doing 80% of the heavy lifting for your profit, and what's ahead for tradies this financial year. Plus, an invite to the free Bulletproof Your Trade Busine...

Joel Pritchett, from The Property Tradies, is a former plumber turned property investor and buyer's agent who built a 5-property portfolio before the age of 25. In this episode, Nic sits down with Joel to talk about how tradies can start building wealth through property, the common mistakes they make when choosing where to buy, why location does 80% of the heavy lifting, and how to find and use a good buyer's agent. Joel also share...

Steve Rooney is no stranger to the Tradies in Business podcast, but this time he's back with a plot twist nobody saw coming. Fourteen years of running his own landscaping business, a community of mates, hard lessons in business partnerships, and a whole lot of head noise led Steve to one of the biggest decisions of his life. What he chose next will surprise you, and the reasoning behind it might just make you rethink what success i...

Running a trade business 700km from home while raising a young family on the coast is no small feat, but for Nick Allen of NJA Electrical, it's exactly what he built over 13 years in remote Western QLD. Nick shares what it's really like earning trust and loyalty in a town of just 200 people, where your reputation follows you everywhere and relationships run far deeper than just a job and an invoice. From flying in and out of Blacka...

The federal budget has landed and for most tradie business owners, the news is not good. Nic brings in Angus Gasbarri, founder of Earnt Advisory, an accountant who has built his career working closely with trade and construction businesses, rounding out his expertise with a background in mortgage broking. Together they talk about the biggest budget changes affecting tradies and small business owners, covering negative gearing, capi...

HR mistakes don't always look like mistakes; sometimes they look like efficiency. Nicole sits down with Kristy-Lee Billett, CEO of People Powered Business and founder of People Powered HR, who brings 20 years of experience helping small businesses build great teams without the chaos, the confusion, or the crippling contracts. Together they unpack the growing risk of using AI for people management, why ChatGPT confidently quoting fi...

Starting a trade business can feel like a massive leap, especially when you’re not sure if you’re ready or where to begin. This week, Nic sits down with one our our Tradiepreneurs, Josh Prineas from Ecostream Plumbing, a plumber who backed himself and went from side jobs to running his own business in just two years. They talked about Josh’s journey into the trades, the moment he decided to go all in, and what tho...

Avoiding your numbers doesn’t make the pressure go away, it quietly makes it worse. Daniel Palmer from Bold Wealth talks about why so many tradies put off getting on top of their finances, how that avoidance impacts long-term wealth especially super, and what actually changes when you face it head-on. Daniel also shares why having the right people around you matters, how to protect your income, and how to make clear financial...

Moving from being on the tools to leading a team is where many tradies start to feel the pressure, and it’s often the people side of the business that creates the biggest challenges. Nic Stephen from You Who shares what effective leadership actually looks like in a trade business, and why most “people problems” come back to how leaders show up. The conversation covers adaptive leadership, building trust through vu...

Most tradies don’t need more marketing.. They need clarity on what actually works. This week, Nic is joined by Rhys Clay, Partner and Head Geek at Kaha Digital, to strip digital marketing back to the essentials for service-based trade businesses. They unpack vanity metrics, overpriced packages, and the common traps that keep tradies stuck, while highlighting what genuinely drives results: a strong Google Business Profile, the...

Australia’s growing trade deficit isn’t just a headline, it’s something business owners are feeling every day. Nic chats with tradie turned Workex founder Ian Cooper to unpack the real pressure on the ground, from a 48% apprenticeship churn rate to ageing workforces and stretched safety systems. With experience spanning trade school, food and beverage manufacturing, project management and entrepreneurship, Ian sha...

Feeling stuck on the business hamster wheel, working hard but never quite getting ahead is where Daniel from Dreamscapes Landscapes & Garden Solutions found himself before he took the leap, asked for help, and started seeing real change. Nic sits down with Daniel about his first 12 months in business, the early grind of taking any job to make payroll, learning pricing and systems the hard way, and moving from solo operator to c...

Solar installs get all the attention. But what happens after the panels go on the roof is where many trade businesses are quietly leaking opportunity. In this episode, Nic sits down with Daniel Lazarus from Industrias to unpack the overlooked role of solar maintenance and why it’s becoming one of the most stable, scalable business models in the industry. They talk about recurring revenue, labour-based growth challenges, white...

Paperwork alone does not keep people safe on site. Systems do. Nic sits down with Gareth Davies, Managing Director of SafeAssure, to break down what practical and effective safety really looks like in a trade business. They explore why so many safety documents fail once the work starts, and how to build simple systems that tradies actually understand and follow on site. Drawing on real world incidents and decades of industry experi...

In this special episode, Nic invites you for a stroll down memory lane, sharing how the TIB podcast began, the unexpected moments that shaped it, and the evolution from early guest chats to Real Tradie Stories, F#ck It Friday, and the daily TradieRonaCast episodes. It’s a warm and honest look at the journey and the community that has grown around it, wrapped up with a little nostalgia and a reason to stick around right to the...